Talk:Surfline

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Suggested Content[edit]

Hi. My name is Sophia and I work for Surfline. I'd like to help improve the page, while complying with Wikipedia's conflict of interest rules, starting with the "History" section. The current history section is factually accurate, but it has almost no citations, features editorialized language like "with the hopes of being a 'category killer'", has some parts that are overly detailed, and mostly drops off around the 1990s. I'd like to propose an expanded/cited rework of the History section and have prepared a proposed draft:

Expanded history

History
Surfline was founded in 1985 as a pay-per-call telephone surf report based on weather, the National Weather Service's buoy data,[1] and telephone reports from young surfers that travelled to beach sites to observe the waves in-person.[1][2][3] Callers heard a 90-second recorded message with information about the size, duration, and angle of waves at 22 California surfing locations.[1][4] Surfline was founded by Southern California surfer Jerry Arnold and David Wilk.[1][5] Surfline was the first significant use of technology to aid in finding the best surfing conditions.[1][5] Previously, surfers used tips from local surfing stores or friends that live within eye-sight of the beach.[4] At first, Surfline got about 900 calls per-day.[1]

Surfline hired Sean Collins as its chief forecaster in 1984. Collins played a role in Surfline's growth, after he accurately predicted wave conditions in South America a week in advance, while the waves were still six thousand miles away from coastal surfing locations.[4] This forecast also triggered a backlash against Surfline and services like it, for overcrowding beaches with the best waves and taking the search for waves out of the surfing experience.[1][4] However, interest in surf forecasting services like Surfline continued to increase.[4] Collins later left Surfline and started a competing company called Wavetrak, that was merged with Surfline in 1990.[6] Through the merger, Collins became a co-owner of Surfline, then purchased complete ownership in 1990.[1][2][7] Collins helped develop Surfline's early methodologies for predicting surfing conditions, before passing away in 2011.[8][6]

By 1991, Surfline was providing more than one million phone-based surf reports a year.[2] In 1992, it started distributing surf reports via fax and pagers, before moving on to internet-based services.[4][6][8] In 1995 Surfline became an online service, offering live video streams of surf breaks in addition to written surf reports.[9][10] The first live camera feed was created in 1996 at Huntington Beach.[11][1] Around this time, Surfline started doing forecasting work for special events, contests, and surf magazines,[1] as well as lifeguard organizations and government agencies like the U.S. Coast Guard.[6] In March 2000, Surfline was acquired by surf website Swell.com.[10][12][13]

By the early 2000s, Surfline provided data for 37 beaches in California, four in Hawaii, 17 in Florida, and 20 others predominantly on the East Coast. It had 350,000 monthly visitors in 2000[12] and 500,000 by by 2002.[4] By 2002, it had about 15 employees and 30 contract surfers that visit beaches in-person to provide reports on surfing conditions.[11] Surfline developed its own software to predict waves.[10] In 2006, Surfline installed its own buoy system to track waves offshore.[14]

Around 2007, Surfline acquired the website Buoyweather.com. In 2007, Surfline expanded its network of beach cameras and created its first Surfline smartphone apps.[15] This was followed by the acquisition of FishTrack.com in 2012. Fishtrack.com was the Surfline.com equivalent, but for fishing, instead of surfing.[15] In 2017, Surfline acquired Magicseaweed, a United Kingdom-based company founded in 2002 and focused on forecasting surf conditions in more than 200 countries.[15] In 2017, Jeff Berg was appointed CEO, followed by Kyle Laughlin in 2020.[16] In 2020, the company raised $30 million in venture capital funding from The Chernin Group.[16] In 2021, Surfline reworked its wave forecasting engine, incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning.[17] It also advised the 2021 Olympic Committee on anticipated wave conditions at the first olympic surfing competition.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Westwick, P.J.; Neushul, P. (2013). The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing. Crown Publishers. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-0-307-71948-5. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c "Riding a Wave of Success". Los Angeles Times. December 26, 1991. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
  3. ^ Chuang, Tamara (May 31, 2002). "More Web Sites Charge for Content as they Struggle to Make Money". Knight Ridder Tribune.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Warshaw, Matt (April 29, 2011). The History of Surfing. San Francisco, Ca: Chronicle Books. pp. 376–379. ISBN 9780811856003. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  5. ^ a b "Daily Reports Aid Search for Perfect Wave `Surfin' Safari' Now Being Conducted by Phone". The Los Angeles Times. April 28, 1985. p. 5.
  6. ^ a b c d Leibach, Julie (June 11, 2019). "Catching A Break". Science Friday. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  7. ^ "Sean Collins, Trusted Forecaster for Surfers, Dies at 59". The New York Times. December 31, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Thornton, Stuart. "Science of Surfline". National Geographic. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  9. ^ Joe Haakenson, Costa Mesa Daily Pilot, 04/20/2011, "Before There was Surfline, There were Landlines", Retrieved 05/04/2011
  10. ^ a b c Nast, Condé (April 1, 2001). "Surfer Turf". Wired. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  11. ^ a b Dixon, Chris (June 13, 2002). "A Site for Real Surfers Catches a Wave". The New York Times. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  12. ^ a b Pollack, Michael (August 17, 2000). "Surfing the Web for Sites on the Real Thing". The New York Times. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  13. ^ "Nostrums for the Board Set". WWD. March 9, 2001. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  14. ^ Chuang, Tamara (October 23, 2005). "Surf's Up". Knight Ridder.
  15. ^ a b c Connelly, Laylan (October 3, 2017). "Huntington Beach-based Surfline buys Magicseaweed in UK, adding to forecasting portfolio". Telegram. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  16. ^ a b Lincoln, Ross A. (December 1, 2020). "Chernin Group Invests $30 Million in Surf Data Website Surfline". TheWrap. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  17. ^ a b Woodruff, Jay (March 8, 2022). "The 10 most innovative companies in sports in 2022". Fast Company. Retrieved June 2, 2022.

Because it might be difficult to compare this proposed version to the current page, I have prepared a "track changes" type version with detailed notes here. Thank you in advance for your time. Best regards.Smackrides (talk) 21:18, 14 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good! Make it so. knoodelhed (talk) 19:17, 5 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Impacts on Surf Culture and Services[edit]

@Scott Sanchez: Thank you for reviewing the expanded History section I proposed with a disclosed conflict of interest. I was hoping you would also be willing to review a short "Services" section I've put together below.
Proposed Services section

Services
Surfline is a company, website, and app that provides surfing-related resources, such as wave forecasts.[1] As of 2015, it collected data on more than 2,700 surfing spots[2] using buoys, NASA satellites, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other data sources.[3] It has an analytical model called LOLA that uses that data to predict surfing conditions.[3] Surfline also monitors beaches visually using high-resolution cameras.[3] As of 2022, it had 800 cameras.[4] Surfline is also available as smartphone app[3][2][5] and can record a surfing session using a smart watch and the beach cameras.[6] Surfline's business model is a mix of advertising revenue, subscription-based pricing, and forecasting for special events or other organizations.[7] For example, it provides forecasting services to the U.S. Coast Guard and for competitions or special events.[3]

Surfline is simultaneously praised as innovative and criticized for commercializing the surfing experience.[8] Critics argue Surfline has taken away the sport's mystery, commoditized tribal knowledge on waves, and causes over-crowding at beaches with the best waves.[8] Some surfers damage Surfline's cameras to prevent others from seeing good waves and crowding the beach.[9] On the other hand, Surfline can draw surfers to remote locations they otherwise would not have thought of.[9]

References

  1. ^ Lincoln, Ross A. (December 1, 2020). "Chernin Group Invests $30 Million in Surf Data Website Surfline". TheWrap. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  2. ^ a b Nast, Condé (April 15, 2015). "Smart Surf Watch Tells You When to Head to the Beach, Brah". Wired. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e Leibach, Julie (June 11, 2019). "Catching A Break". Science Friday. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  4. ^ Woodruff, Jay (March 8, 2022). "The 10 most innovative companies in sports in 2022". Fast Company. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  5. ^ Press, Viva Sarah; Leichman, Abigail Klein (August 10, 2016). "Surfline's HD cameras now catch Israel's best surf". ISRAEL21c. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  6. ^ "Surfline's Apple Watch app will record your next big wave ride". Engadget. July 31, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2022.
  7. ^ Dixon, Chris (June 13, 2002). "A Site for Real Surfers Catches a Wave". The New York Times. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  8. ^ a b Warshaw, Matt (April 29, 2011). The History of Surfing. San Francisco, Ca: Chronicle Books. pp. 376–379. ISBN 9780811856003. Retrieved 2014-05-28.
  9. ^ a b Westwick, P.J.; Neushul, P. (2013). The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing. Crown Publishers. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-0-307-71948-5. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
The second paragraph is intended to be a more concise, balanced, and well-cited summary of the "Impacts on surf culture" section. IMO that section has too many editorialized quotes, citations that do not even mention Surfline, etc. However, there are good sources that do discuss the impact Surfline has had on surf culture, from both a positive and negative perspective. Smackrides (talk) 20:10, 15 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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